Background info on Pratibimb

VJTI is widely regarded as one of India's finest institutions for engineering courses (mainly by people who were never students here, but that's a different story). Within its huge campus at Matunga you can be sure of finding several different activities going on at any given time. And don't think they're all related to studies! From sports to the performing arts to literature, this is where the personality of a VJTIite finds true expression. (If you notice, the classroom did not figure in the list of places you can express yourself. Generally we don't express ourselves in the classroom --- except through sleep, perhaps.)

VJTI was set up 1887 so that the Brits wouldn't have to import people skilled in the technical sciences from old Blighty. In 1917, it was shifted from Byculla to its present location at Matunga. Today, it's VJTI that exports its alumni, to the US most of the time, but also to various other phoren places. (You may not believe this, but curry needs to be prepared scientifically abroad.)

Read on for a glimpse into the workings of this fascinating institution...

VJTI offers courses in the following fields :

• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Production Engineering
• Textiles

In addition, there are various diploma courses offered as well as the Master of Computer Applications (MCA) post grad degree.

Well, that's some dry stuff out of the way (had to do it, this is the OFFICIAL home page, you know.) Now let's get down to the real nitty-gritty, the "crowd" at VJTI.

The crowd basically consists of two types --- the earnest "I-completed-my-journal-yesterday-did-you?" types and the "journal?-which-journal?-couldn't-care-less types". The former type generally oil their hair everyday, write strange "Om" signs on the first page of every notebook and think the canteen is the place you go to to eat your "tiffin". While the latter wear jeans they bought at Heera Panna and try to palm them off as original Levi's, think Vedder is cool even though they can't understand half the Pearl Jam lyrics, and in general have loads of "attitood". (Of course, exceptions exist --- and we're not naming names you see --- but exceptions only prove the rule, don't they?)

These types remain more or less constant throughout the semester (which is the unit of time in engineering colleges) but regularly you find one of the cool dudes (pronounced "doods") defecting to the other camp. Not entirely, of course --- they wouldn't write religious symbols in their books, and oil is DEFINITELY out; but as submission time (that, for all non-engineers, is the time you grovel at the feet of your profs : hence "submission" time), as submission time comes around, you may see some of them actually writing their journals, asking around (with more than a hint of desperation) for some experiment write-ups, and in general doing all the things that the other type of student does regularly. Even rarer is when one of the earnest types gets transformed into a macho hunk/stud (at least in his own eyes). This generally occurs due to an excess of frustration with the universe, around two days before the journals are due, and usually persists till one day after the exams. After that, it's back to Brahmi Amla.